Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I've been a bit busy with an angry set of nobles and Parliament, Leo. After the Kaspian ordeal none of them are happy so I need to either abolish Parliament or abolish the nobles or create an entirely new government all together. It was a thought, but he's a grown man and fully understands that I'm busy. I'm a bit more worried on this country that I worked so hard to bring together, tearing apart. My son's feelings can be put aside and discussed later. Plus he needs to read all the pages and sign where it's asked before Parliament themselves can even consider him gaining the crown." he grabbed the pen from the ink well and continued writing. "With Lewis as the head Prime Minister of Parliament he will no doubt sit on the succession papers for as long as possible. As long as he is king before your children learn how to walk, I am pleased."

Emily gave a screech as she was suddenly grabbed, trying to fight off the servant. Annabelle herself had little time to try and help, Martha's aim having improved and each snowball hitting her. By the time she turned around she was distracted by a ball then tired in the same way her sister was.

Martha grinned and ran over. "Ha! I win! You have been promoted to, uh, what's higher than captain?"

"Commodore, I think." Emily murmured.

"Then you've been promoted to Captain! I am a commodore! Haha! We win the fight!"

"Summoning him would take him away from family time. I hardly spent time with him I was so busy. I want him to be as integrated into his family as possible. I really only saw him when Reinette or Lewis bothered to bring him, and when he started walking he'd visit me on occasion. Me and him have never really bonded, not like him and his mother or him and Lewis." It was depressing, but back then Alvaro was still trying to stitch a country together. Family had always been second now that he looked back. But he'd worked so hard on this country. He sighed and looked up again from his work. "You will have to talk to Lewis about that. I can give you permission to get an audience with the king, but Lewis does the grants for audience when it comes to Parliament. And Parliament is filled with the Prime Ministers of the different parties. You'll have to go to separate towns to speak with all the nobles."

Emily shook her head. "No. it was very well played."

"My clothes are wet though," Annabelle whined. "Let's go inside and drink something warm."

"Where'd Justin go?" Martha asked, yanking Oliver back up properly.

"Oh, he went back inside shortly after you did, though he took the servant's entrance." the one wearing glasses explained. "He said he had something to do."

Martha opened the door, ushering everyone in before closing it, once again stripping her wet clothes an hanging them by the fire. "He's always busy with something."

"have some decency!" Annabelle exclaimed. "There's a boy in the room!"

"Our clothes are wet, Annabelle. We'll catch cold if we don't remove them." and Emily followed Martha's example, though she was slightly more modest about it.

"Once you two have a proper Nalaeniran ceremony, not that I want it the Falian one was exciting enough, you may go travel the world and show off my grandchildren and speak with nobles." Alvaro chuckled. He certainly wasn't stupid, not all the time. "Here, is your marriage certificate." And opened a desk drawer, pulling out a leather bound document, handing it over. "You two are legally married, though Parliament isn't aware of this yet. I could hold a small yet public ceremony by our Elder. He's surprisingly very close to the capital, mostly because he blends in and people walk past him all the time."

Emily tried to remain dignified and lady-like, kegs curled under her under-dress, trying to hide as much skin as possible. Annabelle, on the other hand, hadn early pulled off her somewhat wet under-dress until Emily screeched at her about dignity. Martha let the two of them fight it out, only in the leggings as she watched Oliver walk around quickly.

"Thank you." Annabelle said.

Emily gently took her cup. "Thank you Oliver."

Martha stared, arms crossed and barefoot on the cold concrete floor. No doubt it would have been colder had the fire not been roaring. "Aren't you cold?"

"The elder?" Alvaro stared before nodding. "Of course you can meet him. It's a somewhat odd request, I do admit. Yes. What you need to do is actually walk east of the castle, around the forest. You can short cut through it but dangerous things live in those woods at nightfall. So go around and you should find a cobblestone path and you follow that to the stream. You'll see a sign that points in the direction of the Yons village so follow that route," he paused, wondering if this would be too much for Leo to remember. "You could take Henry with you."

Martha stared at him before taking the mug without a word. She didn't drink it, she didn't even look at it, she kept her eyes on him.

"You're going to scare him." Annabelle said, walking up and pulling Martha away. "You do what you need to do, Oliver." and made sure Martha was facing the other way.

"You're acting odd." Emily pointed out, sipping her drink, toes peeking out to relish in the warmth of the fire.

Once outside the city bounds, though the landscape was still freckled with houses, the crystals that Elliot's lantern held seem to be apparent in the land. They were growing from the ground in all sorts of shapes, and like the lantern, they were also glowing white. People, if out on the land, would greet Leo kindly before continuing on their ways. The cooblestone path, the stream, he sign. Before reaching the villiage (which was a good walk away) there was a fork in the road leading to a more mountainous path or a somewhat even one. Though the ground around Leo would be littered with rocks regardless of which path he chose. The rocks on one side were smooth, used to being traveled.

"Oh. Thank you." Annabelle made sure Martha huddled with them.

"You can remove your wet clothes now. We don't want you catching a cold." Emily agreed, wrapping the blanket around them.

Justin walked in and stopped. "Oh. I brought dry clothes. I didn't think Oliver would be wet.' he looked down at the clothes in his hands before placing them to the side and jogging back out to fetch dry clothes for Oliver.

At one point the crystals were circular and flat, but before and after they were the same odd shapes. There was a small alter in one of the taller stone walls, one for offerings. It was filled with fruits and jewelry and wishes, even, above it written to the elder.

Emily shook her head. "not unless you want too.

Martha stood up and walked back to him, offering the mug. "I held it for you, I didn't accept it. You'er cold and trembling." and nudged it into his hands. "i'm going to go change in my room it's way to cold down here." and picked up her clothes, whistling and walking out.

"Martha you're indecent!' Emily screeched, running with the blanket and covering her topless sister. "Put on something! Cover yourself!"

Annabelle gave a weak laugh. "We'll see you around, Oliver."

Justin walked back in, offering clothes towards the blond. "I found something that should fit you."

There was silence for a moment or two before the rocks moved and reformed themselves, the crystals being apart of the being. The alter stayed ut, the center of the elder's chest as the large mountain of an elder sat there, holding leo in his palm. The crystal eyes gave a curious blue color, looking at the Falian before becoming a warm green.

Justin shrugged. "I guess. She's been quiet a lot recently though. I think she's bird watching. She's outside a lot too."

The elder tilted his head slightly before giving a small nod. He could attend. It wouldn't be hard to not attend considering he lived in the rocks. he leaned forward, opening his mouth but no sound came out. It snapped shut, crystal eyes looking down as he grabbed something which fell from the alter, staring at it before gently lifting it up with his two large fingers and placing it into Leo's hands. The orange was free of bruises.

"We get some birds but a lot of them are sleeping for the winter I guess." he shrugged. "She hits hard so I make sure not to interrupt."